Hungary is making its backing for Ukrainian membership conditional on laws protecting minority rights. According to Foreign Minister Anita Orbán, Kyiv is already working on the required changes.
According to reports in the Ukrainian press, once again no progress has been made in Ukraine’s EU accession process, after Hungarian diplomats declined to support the opening of new clusters at negotiations on Tuesday. Cluster 2 contains rules related to the EU’s internal market, while cluster 3 concerns competition regulations.
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Hungary did not exercise the same veto over Moldova, whose accession is being handled jointly with Ukraine, paving the way for cluster 3 to be opened on that front. However, the other member states do not want to change their earlier decision that Ukraine’s and Moldova’s EU accession processes should move forward in parallel.
The Hungarian government is tying any further progress in Ukraine’s EU accession process to the pledged settlement of the rights of the Hungarian minorities in Ukraine. The government in Budapest made this clear last week as well, when it again voted no on this issue.
The Ukrainian and Hungarian governments held talks over the summer on the rights of the Hungarian minority, and Kyiv undertook to guarantee the educational, cultural and linguistic rights of the Hungarian-speaking population living in Ukraine.
The Hungarian government’s expectations in this regard have also been backed by EU leaders.
According to a statement on Monday by Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán, progress has been made on this front as well. Work has begun on preparing new legislation on education.
In June, the Hungarian government did not block the opening of cluster 6, which relates to external relations, in Ukraine’s EU accession process.